It must be good to have friends in high places. Something has gone dreadfully wrong and young cadet has paid with his life. Picard is on his way to deliver the commencement address at the Starfleet Academy. Wesley Crusher was part of an intergalactic Blue Angels kind of synchronized flight crew. He is led by the man who would later be Ensign Paris on "Voyager." That character is a bit of a loose cannon as well, but the arrogance of the leader as he lies at the inquest shows the worst part of peer pressure. Wesley falls for the guy's line but is filled with guilt. The reason for the death is that this pilot was in over his head; he shouldn't have been asked to do what he did. It takes everything Picard can do to get his Wunderkind to finally fess up for his actions. When he finally does, it's after a string of lies and coverups by him and his colleagues. Apparently, the sentence is to force him to repeat a year at the Academy. The whole group should have been expelled, considering the severity of the result of their actions. Totally out of character, Locarno takes the entire responsibility on himself and tries to exonerate the rest. This may have worked initially, but once they tried to cover things up, that should have been it. The rules for entrance into this Academy are probably as stringent as it is possible and they have betrayed everyone. It just fizzles so badly at the end. I suppose they thought they might need Wesley's character at some future time.
Review of The First Duty
